Progress Report from the Common Criteria Supply Chain Security Technical Working Group

On September 19 at Progress Report from the Supply Chain Security Technical Working Group (September 19 2012), a status report was presented from the Supply Chain Security Technical Work Group which was formed in March 2012 with the approval of the Common Criteria Development Board, in order to produce a Common Criteria Supporting Document that technical communities can use and adapt for their protection profiles.

The information and communications technology (ICT) supply chain has become increasingly complex, with logically long and geographically diverse routes, including multiple tiers of outsourcing. This leads to a significant increase in the number of organizations and individuals who “touch” a product, and thus, increase the likelihood that a product’s integrity will be compromised. Ensuring that ICT products from commercial software and hardware providers are free from vulnerabilities introduced via the product developer’s supply chain is an increasing concern which has manifested in proposed legislation and draft government regulations, as well as publicized attacks.

Exacerbating those concerns is the fact that awareness of supply chain risks and potential mitigations is not widely shared within the ICT industry, academia, government regulators, and product acquirers.

The product life cycle and its corresponding supply chain aspects extend from design to sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, delivery, installation, support, and end-of-life. Each stage presents potential threats of attack: the introduction of counterfeit products or components; elements of product taint, for example via malware or an integrity breach; disruptions to logistics and delivery; as well as tampered communications between the product developer and the customer or the customer and supplier.

The initial Supply Chain Security Supporting Document will describe several of these threats in more detail, specify additional threats, suggest assurance requirements, and recommend best practices for product manufacturers, evaluators, certifiers and end users.

As communities incorporate targeted material from the Supply Chain Supporting Document in protection profiles and vendors complete Common Criteria security evaluations against those protection profiles, customers will gain additional assurance of the product developer’s actions to secure their supply chain, and confidence in the manufactured product they are receiving; all under the globally accepted Common Criteria framework.

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